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Southern California remains at extreme risk of fires starting
In wine country, firefighters gained ground against the Kincade fire, the largest burning in the state
New blazes in southern California on Thursday burned homes and forced residents to flee, as strong Santa Ana winds of up to 60mph fueled a ring of wildfires around the Los Angeles area.
In San Bernardino, a city of just over 200,000 people, a new wildfire that broke out in the early hours of Thursday torched several homes and forced evacuations. Less than 20 miles away in Riverside county, evacuations were issued after a fire in the city of Jurupa Valley started shortly after midnight, spreading to 300 acres.
Early reports indicate that a new blaze has broken out in Fullerton in Orange County, one of roughly a dozen new fires that have ignited today alone. Cal Fire hasn’t yet posted details on Fullerton fire, but we’ll bring you new details as they emerge.
A brush fire has started in the Brea Dam area of Fullerton. FULLERTON FIRE, Orange County Fire Authority Air Ops, and Fullerton PD are all on-scene. Updates to follow. AVOID THE AREA. pic.twitter.com/fMuEXVtIDJ
The terror of a wildfire tearing through communities, consuming homes, is likely unimaginable for anyone who hasn’t lived through, or fled from one. And in the wake of a blaze, those stories abound.
But every once in a while a picture of humanity will emerge from the ashes — a kind of happy ending against a backdrop of destruction. We’ve seen a few of those this week already, as fires ignited up and down the state.
“She had a really gorgeous, beautiful, straightforward birth,” said Bee Lauher, a licensed midwife, who delivered the baby along with Napa Valley Midwives partners Heather Hilton and Kristina Parks, as first reported by the Napa Valley Register....
This isn’t the first time the Napa Valley Midwives have worked in a hotel during a crisis. In 2017, they delivered a baby at the Westin Verasa Napa with the Wine Country fires burning close by.
The equestrian community has consistently come together during fires. Volunteers often find people who need help through word-of-mouth or on social media, especially through a Facebook group called Southern California Equine Emergency Evacuation.
“People come from all over to help out,” Perera said.
This man just showed up to save these alpacas. He’s trying to herd them out and push them across the road #KincadeFire.
Still on Chalk Hill Road. The man, who wouldn’t give his name, lives in a ranch across from these guys. He moved them all over to his place. pic.twitter.com/JDqERpLXpT
Blaze around Lake Innes and Lake Cathie in northern NSW has destroyed more than 2,000 hectares and spread smoke haze to Sydney
Hundreds of koalas are feared to have died in an out-of-control bushfire in northern New South Wales which has raged unchecked for days in the heartland of their prime habitat.
The blaze, reportedly caused by a lightning strike near Port Macquarie, has burned more than 2,000 hectares, including an important koala breeding ground.
Kincade fire threatens 90,000 structures as new blackouts planned
‘Extreme red flag warning’ issued in south
Millions of Californians prepared for days of darkness as the United States’ largest utility once again said it was switching off power to prevent powerful winds from damaging its equipment and sparking more fires.
Meanwhile, firefighters were battling wildfires across the state on Tuesday, as winds were expected to pick up again. The Kincade fire in Sonoma county, in the north, had destroyed 124 homes and other structures by Tuesday morning and was threatening 90,000 structures. Crews were also working to control a fierce fire near the Getty Museum in Los Angeles that had prompted evacuations on Monday.
Two million still without power after weekend shutoffs as wine country fire scorches 66,000 acres
California firefighters raced against time on Monday to bring a raging wine country wildfire under control amid a lull in the weather, with warnings that the extreme winds fueling fires across the state could pick up again soon.
Violent winds of up to 100mph helped the Kincade fire, currently the largest burning in the state, to double in size over the weekend. The fire has scorched more than 66,000 acres, destroyed nearly 100 structures, and forced an unprecedented evacuation of more than 185,000 people in the area.
Tens of thousands of people in California have been ordered to evacuate their homes as wildfires spread over the weekend. The Kincade fire in Sonoma County doubled in size on Sunday because of high winds, and wildfires broke out in Los Angeles near the J Paul Getty Museum. About 200,000 people are under evacuation orders across the state and millions are without power.
At least 185,000 evacuated as firefighters battle el diablo winds
Governor calls state emergency as 2 million left without power
Thousands of firefighters in northern California battled to control wildfires fueled by howling el diablo winds, the largest of which forced at least 185,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Meanwhile, more than 2 million people were left without power as the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), shut off power in an attempt to keep wind-toppled electrical wires from sparking additional fires.
A doorbell camera captured residents evacuating the Santa Clarita neighbourhood in California as a wildfire loomed near their homes on Thursday. The footage showed the Ibarra family loading belongings into their car, before another man nearby warned residents to evacuate. Ben Ibarra told Reuters in a message that his family had safely evacuated to a hotel while he remained behind to keep an eye on things. An estimated 50,000 people were displaced by evacuation orders in and around Santa Clarita
That does it for me here today as we shut down the blog on this Friday evening. It’s been a busy day, with firefighters battling blazes from wine country to northern Mexico.
As we head into the weekend, it’s worth noting that the confluence of weather elements, combined with potentially having to evacuate residents in the face of a power outage, could make for a pretty hairy few days. Winds are expected to pick up starting Saturday night, with speeds that some estimate could reach up to 80mph. In short, it’s a weather event that meteorologists are calling unprecedented.
The lights are back on for 99% of the customers who lost power in the latest planned power shutdown, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reports.
As of 5pm, the only customers who remained in the dark are those living in Sonoma county, where the Kincade fire has been burning since Wednesday night. PG&E says about 178,000 customers were impacted by the shutdown, including the Sierra Foothills, North Bay, San Mateo and Kern counties.
#BREAKING : I just shot this timelapse video showing a huge flareup developing at the #KincadeFire . I was the only reporter allowed this far up Pine Flat Road because I was just returning from the frontlines when the flareup happened. @kron4newspic.twitter.com/eMrcCbPPsy
A wind-driven wildfire has forced evacuations north of San Francisco in Sonoma County. The blaze near Geyserville had grown to 15 sq miles (39 sq km) by early Thursday, according to the state firefighting agency Cal Fire. Winds around the county's highest areas were blowing at speeds of up to 70mph, and elsewhere in the region between 30mph and 50mph, the National Weather Service said
Cal Fire said flames consumed about 60 acres in little more than two hours in the hills of a Bay Area community, Sanders Ranch
Police ordered evacuations early on Thursday as a fast-moving wildfire spread in the hills of a San Francisco Bay Area community.
The flames surged despite the area being part of a large parcel of northern California where more than 1.5 million people have had their power deliberately cut off to try to prevent the kind of blazes that have devastated parts of the state in recent years.
Forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan have been spewing toxic haze across south-east Asia, forcing the closure of schools and airports, and prompting Indonesian authorities to deploy thousands of firefighters to tackle them. There has been an increase in reports of respiratory illnesses
PG&E to pay insurers of claimants from two years of blazes, including Paradise fire that left 86 dead, in tentative deal
A utility company with a history of sparking wildfires has agreed to pay $11bn to a group of insurance companies representing claimants from deadly northern California wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
The tentative agreement includes insurance claims from the town of Paradise, where 86 died last November, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) said in a statement Friday.
Trillions of dollars needed to avoid ‘climate apartheid’ but this is less than cost of inaction
The world’s readiness for the inevitable effects of the climate crisis is “gravely insufficient”, according to a report from global leaders.
This lack of preparedness will result in poverty, water shortages and levels of migration soaring, with an “irrefutable toll on human life”, the report warns.
Hundreds of people are holed up in evacuation centres on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast as crews wait to see how many homes have been lost to a ferocious fire, while firefighters in New South Wales are still battling out-of-control fires near the border.
There are fears of significant property losses, with a destructive blaze still burning out of control at Peregian Beach and Peregian Breeze Estate, south of Noosa.
Residents inhaling smoke from peat and trees burned hundreds of miles away
An increase in Indonesian forest fires – the sharpest rise since 2015 – has infuriated neighbouring Malaysia, where residents are inhaling smoke from peat and trees burned hundreds of miles away.
More than 14 megatonnes of carbon dioxide were discharged from the blazes on 5 September, more than triple the average on this day over the previous 15 years, according to satellite data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Fires broke out in 131 indigenous reserves from 15-20 August
Campaigners say indigenous territories easy targets for loggers
Fires have been reported in protected indigenous reserves of the Brazilian Amazon, raising fears that loggers and land grabbers have targeted these remote areas during the dramatic surge in blazes across the world’s biggest rainforest.
Blazes have been seen on the Araribóia indigenous reserve in Maranhão state – a heavily deforested reserve on the Amazon’s eastern fringes, which is home to about 80 people from an isolated group of Awá indigenous people, described by the NGO Survival International as the world’s most endangered tribe.
Forestry expert warns annual burning season had yet to fully play out and calls for urgent steps to reduce potential damage
The fires raging in the Brazilian Amazon are likely to intensify over the coming weeks, a leading environmental expert has warned, despite government claims the situation had been controlled.
Brazilian and French presidents continue feud over G7 aid package for wildfires raging in Amazon rainforest
Brazil’s far-right president and his backers have escalated their row over the Amazon with Emmanuel Macron, attacking the French president’s “lamentable colonialist stance” as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest rainforest.